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THE 

SLEEPING BEAUTY 

CHAPTER I 

O NCE upon a time there were a King and a Queen 
who were very unhappy because they had no 
children. Everything else that the heart could 
wish for was theirs. They were rich ; they lived in a 
wonderful palace full of the costliest treasures ; their 
kingdom was at peace, and their people were prosperous. 

B 



io Yet none of these things contented them, because they 
wanted a little child of their own to love and to care for, 
and though they had been married several years, no child 
had come to them. 

Every day the King would look at the Queen and say : 
tc Ah, if we only had a little child,” and the Queen would 
look at the King and sigh, and they were both very miser¬ 
able about it. Then they would put on their golden crowns 









II 


and sit side by side on their thrones, while lords and ladies 
and ambassadors from other lands came to pay them homage, 
and they had to smile with their lips for the sake of polite¬ 
ness, but there was no joy in their hearts. And that is one 
of the greatest disadvantages of being a King or a Queen, 
that one has always to hide one’s feelings. 

Now it happened one day that the Queen went to her 
bath, and having dismissed her ladies, she descended the 





























































14 


marble steps into the water and began idly to play with 
some wild rose-petals which had fallen into the water. 
All of a sudden she heard a croaking voice that said : 
“ O Queen, be cheerful, for the dearest wish of your heart 
will be granted you.” 

“ Who is that ? ” cried the Queen, a little frightened, 
for she could see nobody. 

“ Look behind you,” croaked the voice, “ and do not be 
afraid, for I come only to bear you good tidings.” 

So the Queen looked behind her, and there was a great 
frog who looked at her with its big round eyes. 

Now the Queen was afraid of frogs, because they are 
cold and clammy, but she was very polite by nature as well 
as breeding, so she did not show her dislike, though she 
could not help shrinking back a little. 

“And do you tell me, Master Frog,” said she, “that I 
shall have the wish of my heart, and do you know what 
that wish may be ? ” 

“ It is to have a little small child of your own, said the 
Frog ; and the Queen nodded. 

“ Very well,” the Frog went on, “ do you see the 
green leaves of that almond tree on the branch by the 
window ? ” 

“I do,” replied the Queen wonderingly. 

“ Those green leaves will fade,” said the Frog, “ and 
the winter winds will blow them away. Then the branch 
will be bare, but in spring-time, before the leaves come 
again, it will be covered with pink blossom, and that 
blossom you shall show to a baby lying at your breast.” 

The Queen gave a cry of joy. A ray of sunlight came 
through the trees, dazzling her eyes so that she had to close 









16 them for a moment. When she opened them again the 
frog had gone, and nothing was to be seen but the dainty 
rose-petals floating on the surface of the water. 








CHAPTER II 

T HOSE were wonderful tidings to be spoken by a frog 
who came no one knew whence and went no one 
knew whither. But the Queen believed that the 
prophecy would prove true, and she was right, for when 
the Spring time came again and the almond blossom was 
pink upon the bough, she gave birth to a little daughter 
who was so beautiful that nobody had ever seen her like. 

Now what joy there was in the hearts of everybody in 
the palace ! The King was so excited that he went into 
council in his dressing-gown instead of his royal robe, and 
he did not care a bit when his courtiers smiled. There 
was coming and going in all the halls and corridors. 
Couriers on swift horses were sent out to bear the glad 
news to the most distant parts of the kingdom. All the 
bells in the churches were rung ; flags were put out in 
the houses and streamers were hung across the roadways. 
Then the cannons were fired, bang, bang, bang, to tell the 
people that everybody was to have a holiday, so that all, 
from the highest to the lowest, might rejoice in their 
Queen’s happiness. 


\ 


I 







































































































“ Never was there such a beautiful child,” said the 
King, looking down at his little daughter as she lay in her 
mother’s arms. He wanted very much to nurse her, but 
this could not be allowed, because men are so clumsy with 
babies. 

“ What shall her name be ? ” said the King. And he 
suggested all the grandest names he could call to mind, for 
he thought that such a wonderful child must certainly have 
a name to suit. But the Queen would have none of them. 

“ She shall be called Briar-Rose,” said the Queen ; and 
so it was arranged. 

A few weeks later the christening took place. That 
was a splendid ceremony to be sure, for all the lords and 



ladies of the kingdom were 
present in their richest dresses, 
together with princes and 
ambassadors from distant 
countries. The little Princess 
was as good as gold all the 
time. She did not cry once, 
but opened her big blue eyes 
and smiled at the glittering 
company as though she under¬ 
stood everything that was 
going on. 

Outside the cathedral the 



22 


roads were crowded with people waiting to see the guests 
come and go. The carriages extended for nearly a mile, 
and as they drove away, headed by the royal coach, in 
which the Queen sat with the Princess Briar-Rose in her 
arms, the spectators took off their hats and shouted and 
cheered. Some of the little boys perched themselves on 
the branches of trees and the lamp-posts in order to get 
a better view, and I have been told that there was one 
poor woman who saw nothing at all, because her boy 
tried to climb up to an inn sign, where he dangled in 
such a dangerous position that his poor old mother had 
to stand with her back to the procession, holding on 
to his legs in a terrible state of anxiety lest he should 
fall. 


At the palace, a magnificent feast had been prepared. 

Now it was the custom in those days, when a King’s 
child was christened, for all the fairies in the country to be 
invited to the christening feast. Each fairy was bound to 
bring a gift, so of course it stood to reason that the royal 
child would have everything that the heart could possibly 
desire. 

There were thirteen fairies in the King’s realm, but one 
of them lived in a lonely place on the outskirts of the king¬ 
dom. There, for the last fifty years, she had shut herself 
up in a ruined tower with only a black cat to keep her 
company, and as she kept herself to herself, everybody had 
forgotten her very existence. The result was that she was 
not invited to the christening feast, and though she had 
nobody but herself to blame for this, she was very angry 
about it. The truth of the matter is that she was always a 



<tk 













24 miserable, sour creature, with no love or kindness in her 
heart, and nobody missed her because she had never given 
anybody any reason to care for her. 

Well, the guests assembled in the banqueting hall of the 
palace and the feast began. 



CHAPTER III 


T HE King and the Queen sat on a dais at the end of the 
banqueting hall, and above them in a little gallery 
there was a band of fiddlers and flute-players. On 
either side of the royal pair sat the twelve fairy godmothers, 
six on the right hand and six on the left. In front 
of each fairy was a golden plate and a golden casket made 
to hold her knife, fork and spoon. These caskets were 
beautifully carved and engraved, and each one was of a 
different shape. One was in the form of a ship, another of 
a shell, a third in the form of a castle with turrets, and so 
on ; nothing more beautiful could be imagined, for they 
had all been specially made for the occasion by the 
cleverest goldsmiths in the kingdom, and they were the 
King’s presents to the fairy godmothers. He felt very 
proud when the fairies spoke admiringly of these caskets 
and said that they would be pleased to accept them. 

Below the dais were six long tables for the guests, and 
there was only just room between the tables for the servants 
to pass, so you may judge how crowded the room was. 
Such a glittering of silks, such a flashing of jewels, such a 
dazzle and splendour had never been seen since the time 
of the King’s coronation, and all the guests were laughing 
and talking merrily. The court painter was there, of 
course, to make a picture of the gorgeous scene, and 


26 was kept so busy sketching on his tablets that he had 
no time to get any food, though probably he had a good 
meal afterwards. 

And the nice things there were to eat ! There were : 
Force-meat balls flavoured with rare spices from the 
East; 

Sardines from Sardinia ; 



Tunny fish from the Mediterranean and Sturgeon 27 
from Russia ; 

Steaming boars* heads with lemons in their mouths ; 
Turkeys, peacocks and swans ; 

Ortolans ; 

Wonderful roasts and delicious stews ; 

Roe deer and Bears* hams ; 




28 


Sweets in all sorts of curious shapes, as, for instance, 
cakes like castles with little men made of sweet- 
stuff for sentries on the battlements, each complete 
in gilded armour and with a halberd over his 
shoulder. (A rare sight !) And eagles carved of 
ice hovering over silver dishes filled with apricots. 

Then followed the smaller dishes : 

Tiny cakes as white and delicate as ladies’ fingers ; 

Birds’ nests made of spun sugar (and in the nests 
were eggs of marsh-mallow, and in each egg was a 
tiny chicken made of caramel!) ; 

Figs and dates from the desert ; 

Other fruits, in and out of season ; 

Syrups and preserves fetched from the four corners of 
the world ; 

Wines cooled in snow from the distant mountains. 
One might fill pages merely by setting down the names of 
all the delicacies. 

Each dish was brought in by the servants in a kind of 
procession, headed by the Master-Cook, looking as grand 
and solemn as an archbishop, for he was a grave and 
dignified person, and of course he had a great responsibility. 
The guests were served by little page-boys of noble birth. 



dressed in the liveries of their masters, and these pages 
handed the dishes and the wines most politely on their 
bended knees as they had been taught to do. 

So the guests enjoyed themselves, and the fiddlers played, 
and the King laughed at everything everybody said, because 
he was in a mighty good humour, and the bright afternoon 
sun, shining through the western windows, lighted up the 
rich hangings on the walls, and flashed upon the jewels on 
fair ladies’ fingers, and fell upon the marble pavement in a 
pool of gold. 

And then, you know, when the merriment was at its 
height, something happened ! There was a sudden cry, 
and a harsh voice, like the croaking of a raven, sounded 
through the room. 

“ Be merry, my lords and ladies,” cried the voice. 
“ Laugh while you may, but remember that tears may 
follow laughter.” 

A hush fell upon all the brilliant assembly. The Queen 
turned pale and shuddered. The King rose hurriedly 
from his place, and he and all the guests turned to look 
at the strange figure that had suddenly appeared in the 
doorway. 

They saw an old woman bent almost double with age, 
her grey head with matted hair sunk deep between her 
shoulders. Her face was white and twisted with anger, 
and her green eyes flashed spitefully. 

Slowly she advanced towards the dais, and stretching 
out her arm, pointed her finger at the gold plates and 
the gold caskets set before the fairy godmothers. “ There’s 
one,” said she, with a harsh laugh, “ there’s two, there’s 
twelve! Did you not know, O King, that there were 


29 


30 thirteen wise women in your kingdom, and the thirteenth 
the wisest and most powerful of all ? Where, then, is the 
plate and the casket set for me ? ” 

The King began to make excuses, imploring the 
angry old fairy to forgive him for his neglect, and begging 
her to sit down and join them in their festivities. “ For,” 
said he, “ I am sure you are very welcome.” 

“ Is it so, indeed ? ” said the thirteenth fairy. “ I am 
not too late, then, though the feast is all but done. I 
shall eat off silver while my sisters eat off gold, and there 
is no curiously-shaped casket for me. No matter, I am 
content, because I am in time, and I shall dower the 
Princess with the gift which I have brought for her! ” 
And here the spiteful creature uttered another of her 
sneering laughs, which made the blood of all the guests 
run cold. 

By dint of much coaxing the King at last managed to 
persuade her to sit down, and the feast proceeded. But a chill 
had been cast over the assembly, and nothing was quite the 
same as it had been before. The old crone muttered and 
mouthed over her food, now and again smiling to herself 
as though she were cherishing some secret and evil triumph. 
The other fairies cast anxious glances at her, for they feared 
her malice, and the youngest fairy of all, who happened 
to be seated at the end of the table, presently rose up 
quietly from her place and, stealing away, hid herself 
behind the arras. And nobody saw her go, nor did a 
single person remark upon her absence. 



CHAPTER IV 

A ND now came the time for the most important part 
of the ceremony, when the fairy godmothers should 
declare their gifts to the royal child. All this time 
the little Princess Briar-Rose had been quietly sleeping in 
her cradle in the nursery, watched over by an old servant 
who had tended her mother as a child. Now the King 
gave orders for the baby to be brought into the banqueting 
hall. The guests ceased their laughter and talk, and the 
musicians laid by their instruments. 



32 


So the sleeping child was brought and placed in her 
mother’s arms. How tenderly she clasped the baby to her 
breast, bending over it as though to shield it from all harm. 
So sweet a sight should have touched the hardest heart, 
and indeed there was only one person in the room who 
remained unmoved, and that was the spiteful and jealous 
fairy, who looked up and bared her yellow teeth in a 
sneering grin. 

“ Queen,” said she, “ your face is pale and your lips 
tremble. What is it that you fear on this day of the 
giving of gifts ? ” 

But the Queen shuddered and was silent. 

Then a fairy rose in her place and said— 

“ I will begin. My gift to the Princess Briar-Rose 
is the gift of Beauty. She shall have eyes like stars, and 
hair as bright as the sunshine of the spring day on which 
she was born, and cheeks as fresh and fair as the petals 
of the flower from which she takes her name. None 
shall surpass her in loveliness.” 

Then the second fairy rose in her turn and said : 
“ After Beauty, Wit. The Princess shall be cleverer than 
any ordinary mortal could ever hope to be.” 

“ I give her Virtue,” said the third. And the Queen 
nodded her head and smiled, for though she esteemed 
beauty and cleverness, she knew that neither was of any 
worth without goodness of heart. 

So all the fairies in turn named the gift which they had 
brought for Briar-Rose. The fourth said that whatever 
the Princess put her hand to, she should do with the most 
exquisite grace ; the fifth, that she should sing like a 
nightingale ; the sixth that she should dance as lightly as a 
























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37 


fairy, and so on until she had nearly all the virtues and 
accomplishments which even a King might desire for his 
daughter. But as yet, the spiteful old fairy had not said 
a word. 

At last she rose and cast an evil glance round. 

“ Have you all finished ? ” said she. “ Hear, then, my 
wish. On the day when she reaches her fifteenth birthday, 
the Princess shall prick her finger with the spindle of a 
spinning-wheel, and shall immediately die ! ” 

This terrible prophecy made the whole company shudder. 
The Queen gave a cry and hugged the sleeping baby still 
closer to her breast. 

“ No, no ! Have pity ! ” she cried. “ Call down your 
dreadful fate on my head if you will, but do not harm this 
innocent child.” 

At this mournful appeal there was hardly one of the 
guests who could keep from tears, but the old crone only 
mumbled to herself as though she were uttering a spell. 
Then the King leapt to his feet, his hand at the jewelled 
hilt of the dagger that hung at his girdle. In another 
moment he might have stretched the wicked creature 
lifeless at his feet, but before he could draw the weapon 
from its sheath, another voice arrested him. 

“ Stay your hand, O King, lest even worse befall. No 
mortal may strike at a fairy and go unpunished. And, 
for the rest, take comfort, for your daughter shall not 
die ! ” 

Then the twelfth fairy stepped out from behind the 
arras where she had been hidden. “ My gift is still to 
come,” she continued. “ As far as I can, I will undo the 
mischief which my sister has done. It is true that I have 


38 not the power to prevent altogether what she has decreed. 
The Princess shall, indeed, prick her finger with the 
spindle of the spinning-wheel on the day when she attains 
her fifteenth year ; but instead of dying she shall fall into a 
deep sleep ; and this sleep shall last for a hundred years, and 
when that time is past, a King’s son shall come to waken 
her.” 



CHAPTER V 


S O the worst was averted, but the fate of the poor little 
Princess was still terrible enough, and it was only 
to be expected that the King should do his best to 
prevent the prophecy from coming to fulfilment. 

The first thing he did was to summon all the magicians 
of his own and neighbouring countries, promising a rich 
reward to the one who could show him a way to defeat the 
old fairy’s malice. The magicians came in scores, some 
with long beards reaching to their feet, some without any 
beards at all, some with bald heads, and some with matted 
hair that looked as though it had not been combed for 
centuries. For days there were so many magicians about 
the palace that they were commoner than cats, and it was 
impossible to enter any room without surprising one or the 
other of them, sitting in deep reflection and looking as wise 
as only a magician can look. But nothing came of their 
thinking, and one after the other they gave up the task and 
departed, having first asked for their travelling expenses. 

At last there came a wizard who was wiser and more 
venerable than all the rest, and when he heard what was 
required of him he said he would go home and consult his 
secret books which contained the magic lore of all the ages, 
and which had been written by the greatest of all the 
magicians, Merlin himself. 


40 


Home, then, he went, to his cell, which was in a rocky 
cliff on the side of a mountain, and having uttered the word 
of power which unlocked the massive door, he entered and 
prepared to begin his researches. 

Now the books of magic lore which Merlin had written 
were in many volumes, and everything in them was set 
down in alphabetical order, so that it could be found easily. 
The old wizard, therefore, turned first of all to the word 
Princess . Five hundred pages were devoted to this subject. 



I 



41 


and, truly, there was a great deal of very interesting 
information. As thus :— 

Princess : How to transform Goosegirl into. 

Spell for causing Princess to be surrounded with 
high walls of bronze, which may by no means be 
broken down except by the notes of a certain 
trumpet (< q.v .). 

(Now q.v. are the first letters of two magic words 
which are to be found in all dictionaries and encyclopaedias 
to this day). 

Princess : Enchanted ring for. 

A new and improved method by which she may 
be changed into a fawn together with any members 
of her family according to desire, and all of them 
transformed back again into their proper shape. 

Princess : An excellent device for causing a Princess to 
grow tall or short by eating of a mushroom, with 
directions how to find the place where the mushroom 
grows, and precautions to be taken lest by over-much 
nibbling she disappear altogether. 

And so on. But there was never a word about how to 
prevent a Princess from falling into a charmed sleep through 
pricking her finger with the spindle of a spinning-wheel. 

So when he had read all through the five hundred pages, 
the venerable wizard turned to the word Sleep, in the hope 
that he would meet with better fortune. 

And there was much reliable information under this 
heading also. There were recipes for potent drugs which 
would cause sleep, and for still more potent drugs which 
would prevent people from going to sleep, and when the 
wizard came to this last he cried out eagerly, for he thought 


that he had succeeded in his quest, until he read on and 
discovered that the spell described was only for use on 
wicked Queens who had shamefully ill-used their step¬ 
children. It is very easy to make a mistake in magic, for 
it is a most complicated science. 

By the time he had read through the two hundred pages 
devoted to the word Sleep , the venerable wizard was very 
uneasy, but he was a persevering person and he did not 
abandon his endeavours. Merlin’s wise books having failed 
him, he cast about for other means to learn what he desired, 
and consulted his oracle. 

Now his oracle was a stuffed crocodile hanging from 
the ceiling, and a voice came from it which told him to repeat 
the magic formula. 

The magic formula is a sentence made up of all the 
sounds that are left out of ordinary speech, and it is a fear¬ 
some thing to listen to. It is also very exhausting to say, 
and after the venerable wizard had repeated it, he was 
obliged to rest for several hours. Then he rose again and 
drew pentagons on the rocky floor of his cave, and crossed 
triangles and circles bordered with all the signs of the 
Zodiac. And he stood in the middle of the pentagons 
and the crossed triangles and the circles and went 
through all sorts of strange and secret rites, but all to no 
purpose. 

But still he would not give up trying ; and he went to 
mysterious places in the woods and gathered strange herbs 
in the dark of the moon. And, returning home, he cast 
the herbs into a brazier and they burnt with flames of 
many colours, giving out clouds of dense smoke and a most 
horrible smell. Then, as these exercises did not bring 





I 


I Utoini. II 












































44 


him the result he desired, he gazed into crystals and poured 
ink into the palm of his hand, and did all the other things 
that he had learnt to do in all the years since he was 
apprenticed to magic as a very small boy. 

And just as he was going to give up the quest in 
despair, a thought came into his head, and he cried aloud 
for joy, for he knew he had discovered what he sought. 
This shows how even the most difficult things may be 
attained by perseverance and patience. 

At the top of his speed he hastened back to the palace 
and asked an audience of the King. This was immedi¬ 
ately granted, for, to tell the truth, the King was awaiting 
his return with considerable anxiety. 

“ Well,” said he, “ have you succeeded in finding a 
way ? ” 

“ I have,” answered the venerable wizard. “ My arts 
have not failed me! ” And he handed the King a piece 
of parchment on which were written the following words. 
They were written in Latin to make them look more 
important, but very likely it was not good Latin, for the 
venerable wizard had been apprenticed to his trade at an 
early age, and in consequence his classical education had 
been somewhat neglected. But this was the meaning of 
them : 

Shall spindle prick ?—then spindle burn, 

No thread weave and no wheel turn ; 

If there’s no spindle and there’s no wheel, 

Then no finger the spindle can feel. 


The King slapped his thighfor joy. “ Why, of course ! ” 
said he. “ How is it that I did not myself think of such 
a simple solution ? It seems to me, Wizard, that you have 
easily earned your thousand crowns! ” 

“Ah, Majesty,” the wizard made answer, “all things 
are simple when once you know them.” 

And in this he was quite right. 



D 


45 






CHAPTER VI 

T HE King lost no time in putting the wizard’s counsel 
into effect. The very next day he caused a pro¬ 
clamation to be written, and ordered copies of it 
to be fixed on all the church doors, and in all the public 
places of every town in his kingdom. This is the way 
the proclamation read : 



WHEREAS a certain malicious fairy, forgetful of the 
duties she owes to the most high and puissant King 
and Queen, rightful sovereigns of these realms, and 
to the Princess Briar-Rose, their dearly loved daughter, 
has, of malice aforethought, and with intent to work 
grievous bodily harm to the person of the said Princess, 
in the presence of the said most puissant Sovereigns 
and of divers of their loyal subjects made and uttered 
a prophecy, to wit: that the said Princess shall in her 
fifteenth year prick her finger with the spindle of a 
spinning-wheel, and that a certain dire misfortune 
shall fall upon her because of that injury, to the sorrow 
of her loving parents : NOW BE IT DECREED 
That all spinning-wheels or instruments of spinning 
whatsoever, in the possession of any subjects of the 
Kings most excellent Majesty, whether they be 
worked by hand or by treadle or by any other device, 
together with all spindles, shuttles, bobbins, and all 
other accessories or appurtenances thereunto belonging, 
shall forthwith be rendered up to the officers of the 
King’s most excellent Majesty appointed to receive 
them. AND BE IT FURTHER DECREED 
That if any person or persons fail to observe or obey 
this edict or ordinance by unlawfully retaining any 
instrument of spinning or accessory thereunto, such 
persons shall be dealt with according to the full rigour 
of the law, and shall suffer the penalty of death. 

Given under our royal hand and seal. 















4 « 


The issue of this proclamation caused a great deal of 
interest and excitement throughout the kingdom. All the 
people came out of their houses to gaze at it, for they had 
never seen its like before, and though very few of them 
knew how to read they realised that it must mean some¬ 
thing very important. So they sent for clerks and scholars 
to read it to them, paying a penny apiece for the service, 
which pennies, the clerks and scholars, being usually extra¬ 
ordinarily needy persons, were very glad to earn. It 
usually took about three hours to read the proclamation 
and to explain it ; and one must admit that it might have 
been expressed in fewer words. To do so, however, would 
not have been dignified, for this proclamation was what is 
called a legal instrument. 

The very next day into each town and village of the 
kingdom the King’s officers came riding. Before them 
went a trumpeter who stopped at the head of each street 
and blew a loud call. Having thus commanded attention 
he marched past the houses calling in a loud voice : 

“ Bring out your spinning-wheels. Bring out your 
spinning-wheels! ” 

So the people brought them out, not without grumbling, 
for a spinning-wheel is a very useful thing to have in a 
house, and in those days people spun and wove their own 
cloth to make their clothes. But they were afraid to disobey 
the King’s order. 

And the spinning-wheels were of all shapes and sizes, some 
of them new and some of them hundreds of years old, and 
there was hardly a house that did not possess one of some 
kind or another. They were all collected together and 
loaded into waggons and taken to the capital, where 


49 


they were piled up into an immense heap in the public 
square. 

Then the King and Queen and all the court came out 
and watched while the big heap was set on fire. The 
people came out to watch too in their thousands, and a 
very fine sight it was to see the enormous flames shooting 
up into the air and to hear the crackle and hiss of the 
burning wood that sounded like the discharge of a hundred 
muskets. 

The King laughed aloud in his relief, and even the 
Queen smiled, while the little Princess Briar-Rose, who was 
held up to a window of the palace to see the bonfire, 
stretched out her arms to the pretty flames and crowed. 
But the people were not very much amused by the sight 
because they were their spinning-wheels which were being 
burnt. 



5 ° 


“ I’ve had my wheel for twenty years,” said one woman, 
“ and now I’ve none at all, and how on earth I can 





get along without it I don’t know, with six growing lads 5 1 
to find breeches for ! ” 




















“ Five silver crowns my wheel cost my good man last 
Candlemass,” said another, “ and there it goes up in flames 
and smoke.” 

“ What is a wheel if the burning of it saves our little 
Princess ? ” quoth a third. “ Come, cheer up, Mother, the 
King has reason for what he does and he will not see us 
want.” 

And this man was right. The King had no wish to 
oppress his subjects, for no sooner was the pile reduced to 
ashes than he caused another proclamation to be issued, 
saying that the owner of every spinning-wheel should be 
paid for its loss. And not only so, but the King told his 
merchants to buy spun yarn from neighbouring countries 
so that the people might be able to weave, even though 
they could not spin. 


CHAPTER VII 


T HE little Princess Briar-Rose, of course, knew 
nothing of the strange events that had happened 
at the feast of her christening, and the King 
gave orders that nobody should even mention the subject 
to her. It is not a pleasant thing to know that the 
fairies have decreed that one shall fall asleep for a 
hundred years on one’s fifteenth birthday, even though 
one is to be awakened by a handsome Prince at the end 
of that time. So all the lords-in-waiting and the ladies- 
in-waiting had to be very careful and discreet. If they 
told the Princess a story, they had to keep the word 
“ spinning” out of it ; and if they showed her a book they 
had to take pains to see it did not contain a picture of a 
spinning-wheel, or any reference to a distaff or spindle, lest 
she should ask what they were. The King’s Customs 
officers, on the boundaries of the kingdom, had to examine 
every waggon-load of merchandise that came into the 
country for fear it should contain a spinning-wheel ; and 
if anybody was found trying to smuggle one in he was 
brought before the judges and punished. 

By these devices the King felt certain that he had 
averted the fate laid upon his daughter. 

But the promises of the other wise women were fulfilled 
to the letter, for the young Princess grew up to be the 
most beautiful, gifted and gracious maiden in all the world. 
That, at any rate, was what everybody in the palace said. 


from the lords and ladies down to the scullions in the 
kitchen, and although people are inclined sometimes to 
flatter Royalty, in this case there was reason for their 
admiration. 

To begin with, the Princess was as lovely as a spring 
morning, with eyes of the purest, softest blue, and hair in 
which the rays of the sun seemed to be entangled. When 
she came into a room people stopped whatever they were 
doing to look at her, and everyone felt happier because she 
was there. 



55 


56 


And her cleverness ! She never had any trouble with 
her letters or her multiplication table. She could cipher 
as easily as she could spell; she knew the history of her 
own country and of every country round it ; and nobody 
could puzzle her with the hardest question in geography. 
She could sew and embroider, and knit and paint and draw ; 





she could repeat poetry in five different languages ; 


57 



5 8 she studied mathematics and botany and astronomy and 

even law. In short, there was no end to her knowledge, 
and all because she had those fairies for her godmothers. 

Besides this, there were all her other accomplishments; she 
could play on all sorts of musical instruments, as, for instance, 
fiddle and zither, large harp and jew’s-harp, church organ and 
mouth organ, flute and penny-whistle, and even on the 
nursery comb ; she could sing like a nightingale and dance 




l 


like a fairy. 


59 


/ 





60 And yet she was never conceited or puffed-up, as some 
good-looking and accomplished people are apt to be. On 
the contrary, she was always sweet-tempered and modest, 
and for this reason she was loved. People may admire 



good looks and a graceful deportment, and they may 61 
respect ability, but it is only sweetness of nature and 
goodness of heart that can win love. And these things 
were the gift of the third fairy. 



E 


62 


So the years passed, and at last came the day when the 
Princess Briar-Rose was fifteen years of age. 

What a day that was ! Everybody came to wish her 
many happy returns, and she had so many presents that 
at least a dozen servants were kept busy unwrapping the 
parcels. The King gave her a white pony with a saddle 
of red velvet, and bridle and stirrups of gold, while the 
Queen’s present was a beautiful and costly necklace of 
pearls. Even the boy who turned the spit in the kitchen 
brought her something, and though it was only a little 
wooden shoe which he had carved with his own hands, the 











Princess prized it just as much as though it had been made 
of gold. 

The only person who was not happy on the Princess’s 
birthday was the Queen, and she went about with a pale 
face and a look of great anxiety. 

“ Come, come, my love,” said the King, “ what is the 
matter with you? Surely you are not thinking of that 
foolish old prophecy ! ” 

“ How can I help thinking about it ? ” the Queen 
answered. “ I have not been able to get it out of my 
mind for fifteen years, and now that the day has come I 
am afraid.” 

“ Make your mind easy,” said the King. “ Nothing 
is going to happen. Why, there’s not a spinning-wheel 
within a hundred miles. I have taken good care 
of that! And he went away chuckling, to attend 
a meeting of his Cabinet. But the Queen shook her 
head. 

Now while the King and Queen were talking, the 
Princess Briar-Rose was wandering about in the castle, 
visiting room after room, as she had done many times 
before. The castle was so big that a stranger might easily 
have been lost in its maze of stairways and corridors, but 
Briar-Rose knew every part of it quite well, from the great 
kitchens below ground, where on feast days a score of cooks 
prepared the dinner for hundreds of guests, to the topmost 
turret above the battlements, where the sentries kept watch 
with their pikes on their shoulders. There was only one 
part of the castle which Briar-Rose had never explored, 
and that was an ancient tower which rose from the eastern 
end. The door of that tower was always locked, and 














\ 



% 









although the Princess had often 
tried to find the key she had 
never succeeded. The servants 
told her that the tower had not 
been inhabited for nearly a hun¬ 
dred years, and it had never been 
entered within the memory of 
anybody in the castle. 

To-day Briar-Rose flitted rest¬ 
lessly from place to place. She 
peeped into the kitchen and saw 
the kitchen boys turning the spits 
on which whole oxen were being 
roasted. Then she went into 
the empty throne room and saw 
the golden thrones side by side 
upon the dais, and the rich 
tapestry, glowing with all the 
colours of the rainbow, on the 
walls. After that she mounted 
to the battlements from which 
she could see over miles and miles 
of her father’s kingdom, and not 
content with that, she ran up the 




staircases into the turrets and looked through their narrow 67 
slits of windows upon the courtyard below, so far down 
that the people walking therein seemed no bigger than 
mice. And then she came down again and continued her 
wanderings, searching in all sorts of out-of-the-way corners, 
until at last she found herself before the door of the 
ancient tower into which she had never been. And as she 
looked at the door, she gave a start of surprise and then 
a cry of joy. 

There was a key in the lock. 



CHAPTER VIII 

I T was a rusty key,, and Briar-Rose was afraid that she 
might not be able to turn it, but to her surprise it 
turned quite easily. The heavy door swung inward 
on its ancient hinges with many a creak and groan, and 
she found herself in a little dark room thickly carpeted 
with the dust of years. From this room a winding staircase 
led upward, and Briar-Rose was iust about to climb the 
stair when a sudden noise made her start back in alarm. 

IVhirr ! There was a beating of wings, a flurry and a 
scuffle, and past her face flew a dark shape, with gleaming, 
yellow eyes. It was only an owl who was hiding in the 


















70 


tower out of the sunlight, but he gave poor Briar-Rose a 
great fright, and she was in two minds whether to turn 
back or not, but the winding staircase looked very inviting 
and she wanted to see whither it led, so gathering up her 
skirts to avoid any creepy things that might be crawling 
about, she ran up the stairway as fast as she could, round 
and round until she reached the top. There she came 
upon another door. 

In this door also was a rusty key, and Briar-Rose turned 
it as easily as she had turned the first. Then she pushed 
open the door and entered. 

She found herself in a small room lighted by narrow 
windows. Beneath one of these windows was a couch, 
and in front of it sat an old woman with a spinning- 
wheel. 

“ Good-morrow, Motherkin,” said the Princess. “ What 
are you doing ? ” 

“ I am spinning, my pretty child,” answered the old 
woman without ceasing her work. 

“ Spinning i 5 ” asked the Princess. “ Oh, do let me see ! 
What is that thing which goes round so merrily ? ” 

“ That is the spinning-wheel,” said the old woman. 
“ Why, child, you speak as though you had never seen such 
a thing before.” 

“ Indeed, I have not,” said the Princess. “ How inter¬ 
esting it is ! I wonder whether I could do it as well as you. 
Will you let me try ? ” 

“ Why, of course,” said the old woman, “ every young 
girl should know how to spin. Here you are, my dear,” 
and she gave Briar-Rose the spindle. 

Now whether the Princess in her eagerness to seize the 


7i 


spindle grasped it too roughly, or whether it was just because 
the fairy had ordained that it should be so, I do not know, 
but anyhow the sharp iron point pricked her hand, and 
immediately she fell backward on to the couch in a deep 
sleep. 

And in that very moment sleep fell upon every man, 
woman and child in the castle, and upon every living thing 
within its gates. The King, who was sitting at the 
Council-board with his ministers, stopped speaking in the 
middle of a sentence, and remained with his mouth open, 
in the act of uttering a word, and nobody remarked the 
strangeness of his conduct, for all his ministers were asleep 
too, just as they sat. Outside the door the sentry leaned 
upon his pike. In the Queen’s chamber the ladies-in¬ 
waiting fell into a profound slumber in the very midst 
of what they were doing—one as she was hemming a 
handkerchief, another over her embroidery, still another 
while she was talking to her parrot. The Queen slept in 
her chair, and a little page-boy who was singing fell asleep 
in the middle of a note. 

All through the castle the charmed slumber spread. 
Courtiers, officers, stewards, cooks, errand-boys, soldiers, 
beadles,—nay the very horses in the stables and the dogs in 
their kennels were stricken motionless as though they were 
dead. The flies ceased to buzz at the windows and the 
pigeons to coo upon the roof. In the great kitchen the 
scullions fell asleep as they were washing up the dishes, 
and a cook in the very act of boxing the ears of a 
kitchen-knave. 

But not for a hundred years would he feel that blow, 
or be able to utter the cry that was on the tip of his 


7 2 tongue. The dog fell asleep under the table as he was 
gnawing a bone ; the cat in front of a mouse-hole, the 



mouse itself on the other side of the skirting-board, with 
its little sharp nose outstretched to sniff the air suspiciously. 










73 




74 


Even the spits which were turning at the fire, laden with 
partridges and pheasants cooking for the Princess's birthday 
feast—even they ceased to turn, and the very fire stopped 
flickering and the flames sank down. 

A deep silence fell over the castle. In the fields the 
lambs ceased to bleat, the horses to neigh and the cows to 
low. The birds in the trees were silent. One moment 
the air was full of the music of their twittering ; the next, 
all was as still as in a desert. The very wind dropped to 
sleep in the woods ; not a leaf stirred, and the white clouds 
were motionless in the sky. 


****** 


So sleep fell upon the enchanted castle and upon all 
within it, because of the Princess Briar-Rose, who lay 
there on her couch in the ancient tower waiting till 
the hundred years should be past and the Prince should 
come to waken her. 

And all round the castle there grew up a hedge of 
thorn, tangled with ivy, woodbine and creeping plants, so 
dense that from a distance it seemed like a little wood. 
Higher and higher it grew, closing round the castle like a 
wall until all that could be seen was the top of the highest 
tower, and the flagstaff from which the royal standard 
hung limp and motionless. 

And the years went by, each with its changing seasons. 
Spring came and brought to the fields and woods outside 
the new life of leaf and flower. The trees awoke from 
their winter sleep and clothed themselves gloriously in 



green ; the birds began to sing 
again and the swallows and martins 
built their nests under the eaves ; 
children laughed and clapped their 
hands because they were happy in 
the bright sunshine, and old people 
felt their hearts filled with joy 
when they saw the mist of 
bluebells in the woods and 
the daffodils dancing 
the breeze. 

But within the thorn 
hedge no life stirred, and 
neither flower nor tree 
answered the call of spring. 


















As time went on, the people who were young when 
the palace was enchanted grew old and died, but they 
never forgot the prophecy that one of these days the 
sleeping Princess should awaken ; and they told the story 
to their children, who told it in their turn, changing it a 
little because it was only a tale to them. And so, after 
many years, the legend spread abroad to neighbouring 
countries, and many a young prince dreamed that it was he 
who was destined to break the spell and waken the sleeping 
Princess. 

Now and again one would take the quest upon him 
and try to force his way through the thick hedge. But no 
one succeeded. The sharp thorns gripped the unhappy 
young men like clutching hands, and held them fast, so that 
they could neither go forward nor back, and they perished 
miserably. Their bones, whitened by the sun and wind, 
remained there as a warning for all to see, and the 
creeping plants grew over them. 


77 


r 


CHAPTER IX 


A HUNDRED years passed away. At the end of that 
time it happened one day that a young Prince who 
was hunting in the neighbourhood caught sight of 
the towers of the enchanted castle rising above the dense 
forest. He had never been in that part of the country 
before, and had heard nothing of the story of the Sleeping 
Princess, so he asked the first people he met what those 
towers were, and to whom the castle belonged. 

Everybody told him a different tale. One said that it 
was an old castle haunted by spirits ; another, that it was a 
meeting-place for all the witches and sorcerers in the land, 
who gathered there to practise their secret rites. 

“ No, no,” said a third. “ That castle is the home of a 
giant, and all the people in these parts are very much afraid 
of him, so I have been told, because he steals their cattle 
and their crops, and even carries off their children to be his 
servants. And they cannot go to the rescue of those he 
has imprisoned in this way, because of the forest all round 
the castle, which is so dense that nobody can force his way 
through. 


And so they went on, one saying one thing, and one 
another, for each repeated what he had heard. At last an 
old peasant stepped forward. 

“ Fifty years ago, my Prince/’ said he, “ my father told 
me the story of that castle, and since he was born in these 
parts, I think it was the true story, and I will tell it you if 
you would like to hear it.” 

The Prince nodded eagerly, and the old man went 

on : 

“ My father said that years before he himself was born 
a King and Queen lived in the castle with their daughter, 
the most beautiful Princess that ever was seen. In some 
way or other they angered the fairies, who put a spell upon 
the place and upon every one within it, so that they fell 
into a deep sleep. My father said that this sleep would last 
a hundred years, but at the end of that time a King’s son 
should come and waken the beautiful Princess and make 
her his bride.” 

When the young Prince heard these words he felt his 
heart beat quickly. Something seemed to tell him that he 
and no other was the King’s son who was destined to 
remove the spell, and he cried : “ Show me the way to the 
castle, for I will take this adventure upon me.” 

But the old man shook his head. “ I have not yet told 
you all, my Prince. Many are the young men who have 
tried to force their way through the thick wood that 
guards the enchanted castle. Each of them thought that 
he, and he alone, was destined to awaken the Sleeping 
Beauty, and each of them set out with high hopes ; but 
none of them all came back, and their bones, whitened 
by the wind and rain, lie among the thorns of the thick 


79 





✓ 



hedge, a fearful warning to the venturesome. I pray you, 
therefore, my Prince, do nothing rash, but think well 
before you take upon yourself this perilous quest.” 

“ What,” cried the Prince with flashing eyes, “ shall I 
hold back when others have dared ? This very hour I will 
attempt to enter the castle, and if I do not return, carry 
home the news of how I have died.” 

Then without paying any heed to the words of those 
who would prevent him from rushing into such danger, 
the eager young man set out, his heart on fire with 
thoughts of love and glory. Nobody showed him the 
way, but he could see the towers of the castle rising above 
the distant wood, and when he entered the wood itself, 
and the towers were hidden, each path he took led him 
nearer to the place where he would be. 

At last he came to an open glade, and there before him 
was a tangled hedge of thorn, stretching in either direction 
as far as the eye could see. 



. . 
















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CHAPTER X 


A ND now, as the Prince drew nearer, he could see 
.XjL that the story he had heard about that terrible 
place was true, for held in the tangle of briar were 
the bones of many unhappy young men who had tried to 
force their way through to the castle. Rags and tatters of 
their finery hung upon the great thorns that pointed 
menacingly like sharp claws. Here and there upon the 
ground beneath lay pieces of rusty armour, a helmet 
surrounded by a coronet of gold that once had belonged to 
a King's son, a shield with a Prince’s device, a sword with 
jewel-encrusted hilt worth a King’s ransom. There they 
lay, all disregarded among the blanched bones upon the 
grass, and the ground-ivy spread out its leaves to cover 
them. 

Not a sound broke the deep and awful silence. No 
bird sang, no insect droned ; there was no scurry of wood¬ 
land creatures among the leaves, no sigh of wind in the 
trees. In all that place only the thorn hedge seemed 
threateningly alive, waiting to destroy the intruder who 
should attempt to force the secret it guarded. 

Who would blame the Prince if for a moment his heart 
had almost failed him ? There was no gap in that hedge, 
and the great thorns were sharp as dagger blades to stab 
his flesh. But if the Prince hesitated it was not for long. 


88 


“ Have I come so far to turn back now ? ” he thought. 
“ These others who have died were brave men, and though 
they failed, with a courage as great as theirs I may succeed.” 
And without wasting another moment the Prince began to 
force his way through the hedge. 

And now he noticed with surprise that those thorns 
which looked so sharp and cruel became soft as thistle¬ 
down as soon as he touched them, and the trailing bramble 
branches did not entangle him but bent aside at his touch 
as though they had been stems of grass. The hedge opened 
before him, and as he went through it pink blossoms of 
wild roses bloomed on the branches, until the tangled wall 
became a mass of flowers. 

At last the Prince found himself on the other side of the 
hedge in the gardens of the castle. Before him he could 
see the high towers and turrets bathed in the fresh light of 
the morning sun, and as he hastened towards them he 
noticed that the gardens were as trim and tidy as though 
they had just been tended by the gardeners. There was no 
moss or weed upon the smooth paths, the turf on the lawns 
was as short and firm as though it had just been mown, 
and in the flower-beds everything was in the most careful 
order. Spring flowers were blooming there, but they bowed 
their heads upon their stalks, and even the trees seemed to 
hang their arms as though asleep. 

Everywhere there was the same deep silence. The air, 
which should have been full of the twittering of birds, 
was heavy and languorous. There was no flutter of butter¬ 
fly-wings or darting of flies ; the fountains on the lawns 
were not playing, and as the Prince glanced over the edge 

























9° 


of the marble basin of one of them he could see the goldfish 
beneath the water-lily leaves lying still, with never a wave 
of the tail or flicker of fin. 

So he went on over the lawns and terraces and never 
a waking thing did he see, but when he came to the court¬ 
yard he saw a soldier standing there, leaning on his pike 
with his head bent upon his chest. At first the Prince 



thought that he was dead, but his cheek was fresh and 91 
ruddy and it was quite plain to see that he was merely 
asleep. In the courtyard itself were other human forms, 
all still and silent. A row of pikemen leaned against the 
wall and in front of them, stretched out upon the ground, 
snored the sergeant who had been drilling them when the 
spell came upon the castle. A young squire, with a sleeping 


hawk upon his wrist, slept leaning against a sleeping horse 
which he had been about to mount. Near by lay a page 
with a hound in leash, both sleeping as soundly as though 
they never would awake, and through a window in the 
stables the Prince saw a groom lying with a straw in his 
mouth. 

In the stables themselves a like condition of things 
prevailed. The horses slept at their stalls with their noses 
to the mangers, standing on their four legs just as they were 
when they were enchanted a hundred years before, and on 
the back of one of them sat the stable-cat. Here and there 
upon the ground lay grooms and ostlers, fast asleep among 
the straw. 

From the stables the Prince made his way to the great 
kitchen where he saw equally strange sights, and he could 
not help smiling when he came upon the cook with her 
hand still outstretched to clout the head of the unhappy 
scullion whom she had by the ear. Before the fires hung 
the spitted partridges and fowls that were cooking for the 
Princess’s birthday feast, and at the table a maid had fallen 
asleep with her hands in a large trough full of dough. 
She had been making the pastry for a pie when the sleep 
fell upon her, and by her side was another maid who 
had been plucking a black hen. At the sink a kitchen- 
knave was leaning over the pot he had been scouring. 

Then the Prince went out into the great hall and saw 
the courtiers asleep in the window alcoves, or stretched 
out upon the polished floor. Everywhere was a silence so 
profound that the Prince was almost alarmed to hear his 
own breathing, and the beating of his heart sounded like a 


muffled drum. On and on he went, through rooms and 
corridors, up staircases and down staircases, into the Queen’s 
chamber where he saw the Queen and her ladies as still 
and silent as the rest ; one of those ladies had been reading 
to the Queen at the moment when the charmed sleep fell 
upon the castle, and the book, a History of Troy, still lay 
open on her lap. Then the Prince went into the King’s 
room where his Majesty sat with his ministers of state round 
the Council board. He almost lingered there, for it was 
very curious to see those nobles as quiet and motionless as 
though they had been waxworks in a show. Some of 
them were frowning as though in deep thought, and some 
smiling as though they had suddenly remembered some¬ 
thing clever to say. The King himself, at the head of the 
Council table, had evidently fallen asleep in the very midst 
of a speech, for his arm lay outstretched on the table with 
pointing finger, and, by his side, his secretary’s fingers still 
held the pen with which he was inscribing on a roll of 
parchment the royal words. 

So the Prince hurried through the castle from top to 
bottom until he had glanced into every room and opened 
every door. And still he knew that there was something 
more to see, for nowhere had he come across the sleeping 
Princess. Many maidens he had seen of surpassing beauty, 
but his heart told him that none of them all was the maiden 
whom he had come to awaken. 

Down he went into the courtyard again and found 
another stairway which led to the battlements. There 
stood the watchmen whose duty it was to look out over 
the country and report the arrival of travellers, but they, 

G 


93 


too, were all asleep, though one of them had his horn in 
his hand as though he had been about to blow it when he 
was suddenly overcome by the charmed slumber. 

From the battlements the Prince climbed, in turn, into 
each of the turrets, but there was nobody in them at all, 
and no living thing except the owls asleep in the 
crevices of the walls, and the bats that hung head down¬ 
ward from the rafters. Now only one small turret re¬ 
mained to be explored. It was the oldest of the turrets, 
almost a ruin, and plainly long unused, for the iron door 
was rusty and the ivy trailed about the walls. 

The Prince approached it with a beating heart, for there 
he knew he should find what he sought. He threw open 
the creaking door ; with impatient feet he mounted the 
crazy, winding stair, opened the door at the top and 
entered a little dark room. 

And then—and then he started forward with a cry of 
joy and wonder, for lying on the couch below the narrow 
window he saw the Princess. 

She was lying upon a couch with her lovely hair spread 
out like a stream of gold ; and, oh ! no words can tell how 
beautiful she was. Softly the Prince came near and bent 
over her. He touched her hand ; it was warm as in life, 
but she did not stir. No sound of breathing came from 
her parted lips, fresh and sweet as the petals of a rose ; 
her eyes were closed. 

For a long time the Prince stood and gazed upon her, 
for never in all his life had he seen a maiden so lovely. 
Then suddenly he bent down and kissed her lips. 

That was the end of the enchantment. The Princess’s 






96 eyelids quivered ; languidly she moved her head and 
stretched out her arms. Her eyes opened and she 
smiled. 

“ Is it you, my Prince ? ” she said. cc How long you 
have kept me waiting ! ” 




CHAPTER XI 

I N that very moment the charm was broken and the 
castle awoke. 

Instead of the profound silence there came a hustle 
and confusion of noise. Clocks began to strike, doors began 
to slam, dogs began to bark, cocks began to crow and hens 
to cluck ; a breeze sprang up outside and set the branches 
of the trees swaying and creaking ; the doves began to coo 
upon the roofs, the swallows to twitter under the eaves, flies 
came out and buzzed about the window, mice squeaked in 
the wainscot and ran scampering along the rafters. The 
fountain in the garden leapt up sixty feet into the air, and 
the goldfish swam among the water-lily leaves ; ants left 
their nests and foraged about the paths, the butterflies 
danced and fluttered over the flowers, which lifted their 
heads as though to drink in the rays of the sun. In every 
tree in the garden a thrush woke up and began to sing ; 
sparrows chirped, jays screamed, blue-tits chattered, and the 
chiflF-chafiF uttered his strange note. In the woods a cuckoo 
called and blackbird fluted to blackbird in the hedge. In 
the stables the horses awoke and champed at their stalls ; 
the cat jumped down and ran after a mouse which crept out 


98 from under the straw. The sentry at the courtyard gate 
woke up and rubbed his eyes and came smartly to attention, 
looking round uneasily, for he thought he had only been 
asleep for a few minutes and was afraid that somebody 



might have seen him who would report him to the sergeant. 99 
The pikemen also woke with a start, and the sergeant woke 
too, and bellowed an order in a loud and angry voice, for he 
was ashamed of himself for sleeping in front of his men. 





IOO 


The young squire who was going hawking fitted his falcon’s 
hood and mounted his steed ; the page-boy with the hound 
went off to his master. On the topmost tower of the castle 
the royal standard, which had been drooping against the 
flagstaff, filled out and waved freely in the breeze. 

The hedge which had grown up to surround the en¬ 
chanted castle broke in and disappeared ; peacocks squalled 
and strutted on the lawns, martins flitted to and from their 
nests under the eaves, pigs began to grunt, oxen to low, 
sheep to bleat, rooks to caw and children to laugh and sing. 
In short, all the sounds which we hear every day and all the 
time and never notice, began again and seemed so loud in 
contrast to the deadly silence that they almost cracked 
the ears. 

And in every room in the castle the people who had 
been lying asleep for a hundred years woke up and went 
on with what they had been doing just as though nothing 
had happened. In the kitchen the flames of the fire leapt 
up with a hiss and a roar. The kettle began to boil, the 
stew-pot to bubble, and the meat before the fire to steam 
and hiss as the little boy turned the spit. 

“Take that,” cried the cook, giving the scullion the 
clout she had promised a hundred years before. “Take 
that for a lazy knave.” 

“ Goodness,” yawned the maid who had been plucking 
the black hen ; “ I wonder what made me drop off to sleep 
like that ? Well, well, it’s to be hoped the cook didn’t see 
me ! ” And my word, how she made the feathers fly ! 

Miaou ! cried the cat in disgust as he made a pounce at 
the mouse-hole he had been watching, for the little mouse 


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who had poked his nose out a hundred years before drew it 
back like a flash and scampered away. 

“ Dear me ! ” said the servant who was washing the 
dishes ; “ I do believe I have been to sleep with this crock 
in my hand. It’s a mercy I didn’t let it fall! ” And he 
went on with his scouring. It was the same thing in the 
dairy where the maids had fallen asleep while they were 
skimming the cream and churning the butter. And the 
cream was not sour for all that a hundred years had passed, 



✓ 


i°5 


106 nor was the butter rank. But a fly which had been sleeping 
on the edge of one of the milk-pans woke up and flew down 
to taste the milk, and fell in and was drowned, so he was 


nr 






none the better because the spell had been taken off the 
castle. 

In the Queen’s ante-chamber the maids-of-honour and 
the ladies-in-waiting sat up and yawned and stretched them¬ 
selves. Each one of them thought that she was the only 
one who had fallen asleep, and they all began to explain at 
the same time that they had only closed their eyes for forty 
seconds. “ It was the heat,” they all said to each other. 
“ The sun is very hot for this time of year.” 

In the King’s council chamber the King and all his 
ministers woke up with a start. The ministers rubbed their 
eyes and looked very sheepish, for each of them thought 
that he was alone in being caught napping. 

“Your Majesty was saying . . .?” said the Prime 
Minister respectfully, leaning forward. 

“ I was saying ...” said the King. “ What was I 
saying ? ” And he stretched out his arms and yawned. “ I 
crave your pardon, my lords. I do believe I’ve been asleep. 
Heigho ! but my joints are stiff.” 

“ It was but an after-dinner nap,” said the Prime Minister. 
“ Your Majesty is overspent with the hard hunting yester¬ 
day. Is it your Majesty’s will that we should proceed with 
our business, or shall the Council rise until to-morrow ? ” 

“ Go on, my lords, go on,” cried the King heartily. 
“ My little nap has wonderfully refreshed me. What say 
you, shall we pass that bill we were discussing a few 
minutes ago ? ” 

But at this moment a page came into the room with a 
message from the Queen, and as soon as he received it the 
King left his seat in the council chamber and went to her. 

Alone, among all the people in the castle, the Queen had 


107 


realised immediately she awoke from her charmed sleep, 
exactly what had happened. She remembered the words of 
the fairy godmother, and she knew that what she had fore¬ 
told had come to pass, and that the sleep from which she 
and everybody else in the castle had just awakened had lasted 
a hundred years. 

Her first thought was of her daughter, the Princess 
Briar-Rose. Where was she, and what had happened to 
her ? If she, too, had merely fallen asleep, all was well, but 
suppose the doom first spoken by the thirteenth fairy had 
taken effect ? 

In a few words she told the King all that was in her 
mind, and without delay messengers were sent all over the 
castle to look for the Princess. 

In the meantime Briar-Rose and the young Prince were 
talking together in the ruined tower. For the first time she 
heard the story of the enchantment, and her eyes grew 
round with wonder as she listened to her lover’s account of 
the strange things that had happened in the castle. When 
he told of the great hedge and its cruel thorns, and of the 
many young men who died in trying to force their way 
through it, her eyes filled with tears. 

“ How great their courage was,” she sighed. “ Oh, if 
only I could bring them back to life.” 

But the Prince kissed her tears away, and hastened past 
that part of his tale, and presently she was smiling again 
and happy, because she understood that everything had 
happened as it was bound to happen. 

Then the Prince took her hand and raised her from the 
couch on which she had slept so long, and they went down 


the winding stair together and came to the battlements, 109 
where they found a score of breathless people who had been 
running up and down in search of her. 

And how surprised these people were to find her in that 
place, accompanied by a young man they had never seen 
before ! She seemed to have grown more beautiful than 
ever during her long sleep, and they were amazed by her 
loveliness. 



And how may we describe the joy of the King and 
Queen when they saw their daughter again and knew that 
the good fairy had kept her word ? The King was so 
delighted that all he could say was “ Bless my soul! bless 
my soul! ” And the Queen could say nothing at all, for 
she was weeping for joy. 

What a feast there was that night ! In spite of the 
hundred years that had gone by it was still the Princess’s 
birthday, and she was in reality no more than fifteen years 
old, for time had stood still for her. So she had her birth¬ 
day feast just the same, and it was her betrothal feast too, 
for the King joined the hands of the young Prince and his 
daughter and gave them his blessing. 


THE END 


Printed in Great Britain by 
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, 

BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E. I, 
AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. 




























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